1970s in fashion
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[edit] Overview
Whilst the early 1970s were notable for the romantic fashions of designers such as Yves St Laurent, Ossie Clark and Zandra Rhodes, in contrast, the late 1970s saw the start of one of the most influential and long-lasting fashion movements since Dior's new look, with the emergence of Punk from the British designer Vivienne Westwood.
[edit] Early 1970s
The decade began with a continuation of the hippie look from the 1960s. Jeans remained frayed and the Tie dye was still popular. The space age look was on the wane. Hems began dropping in 1974 to below the knee, until finally reaching the lower midcalf in 1977, called the midi skirt. Yves St Laurent introduced the peasant look in 1976 which became very influential. Skirts were gathered into tiers and shoulderlines dropped. Clothing became very unstructured and fluid at this point.
[edit] Late 1970s
With the popularization of disco, a drastic change occurred in mainstream fashion, the likes of which had not been seen since the 1920s. All styles of clothing were affected by the disco style, especially those of men. Men began to wear stylish three-piece suits (which became available in a bewildering variety of colors) which were characterized by wide lapels, wide legged or flared trousers and high rise vests. Neckties became wider and bolder and shirt collars became long and pointed in a style reminiscent of the "Barrymore" color that had been popular in the 1920s. With the demise of disco, late in 1979, these styles (which were by then being criticized as flamboyant) quickly went out of fashion in 1980.
[edit] Punk
Punk as a style originated from London from the designer Vivienne Westwood and her partner Malcolm McLaren. Postmodernist and iconaclastic in essence this movement was a direct reaction to the economic situation during the economic depression of the period. Punk had at its heart a manifesto of creation through disorder. Safety pins became nose and ear jewellery, rubber fetishwear was subverted to become daywear, and images of mass murders, rapists and criminals were elevated to iconographic status.
Punk fashion can be traced to the ripped jeans, torn t-shirts, scrappy haircuts and worn and torn leather jackets sported by members of the Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols were dressed by Malcolm McLaren, their manager, who owned a clothes store called 'Let It Rock' in the Kings Road, Chelsea area of London, when they released Anarchy in the UK in 1976. These styles can be traced back further to New York artists at the Andy Warhol Factory or bands such as the Velvet Underground or New York Dolls. By the 1980s, Punk fashion, and punk bands, had shown up in cities across the world. There was a DIY (do it yourself) quality to the fashion. Some small elements that spoke of a person's punk roots were safety pins, mohawk, spikes or harshly dyed hair, filthy tennis-shoes or pointy Beatle boots. There is an element of a makeshift, thrown together look and a sense of poverty.
[edit] See also
- Fashion design in the Seventies
- Fashion
- History of Western Fashion
- Yves Saint-Laurent
- Vivienne Westwood
- Halston
- Fiorucci
- Ossie Clark
- Norma Kamali
- Le Smoking
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: 1960s |
History of Western Fashion 1970s |
Followed by: 1980s |
